Contact Sync b/w Verizon, GMail, and Hotmail

[bnowicki]

Greetings!

I have an iPhone 4s and I am trying to find the best way to sync my contacts. I keep getting multiples of the same contact and I don't know what the best way to go about resetting my contacts is...

I have a GMail account and Hotmail Live account synced with my phone in addition to adding contacts to my phone that aren't on either my GMail or Hotmail account. I also have Verizon so they do automatic backups every so often...

Any advice on how to get my contacts under control? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[oomgomfg]

Check to see if your phone is syncing contacts with iCloud at settings > iCloud
I saw a similar problem a few days ago, the cause of it was iCloud making new backup copies of the contacts whenever new information was added.
iPhone 4S running up to 7.1.1 does not have built-in capabilities to sync contacts with gmail, so that is most likely not the problem unless you're using an app to do it.

To prevent duplicates from happening I recommend you to organize your contacts on your gmail account, make sure everything you need is in one place, then turn off all the backup services and choose to remove them from your phone as you do that.
Organize the contacts on gmail and make sure there is no duplicates, then export them from there to a vCard format and import them onto your phone. Once you're sure you have a vCard file of a good contact list, you can turn the backup services back on if needed.

To export contacts in gmail:
Go to gmail.com -> Drop down menu at top left -> Contacts -> Gear icon above all the contacts -> Export

To import contacts from outlook (your iCloud contacts must be off to do this manually in iTunes)
In Outlook: Open -> Import -> Import a VCARD File
In iTunes: Phone -> Info -> Sync Contacts with Outlook -> apply with Sync

If you don't want to use outlook, there should be apps out there that can put the vCard contacts onto your phone.

 

[bnowicki]

Thank you! Very much appreciated. I will definitely try that.